Jewish man on guard duty (illustrative)
Jewish man on guard duty (illustrative)Nati Shohat - Flash90

One of the nine people arrested in a raid on the Jewish community of Adei Ad on Sunday morning was a local resident taking part in a training course for the village's emergency security patrol of the community, Arutz Sheva has learned.

Absurdly, members of the Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) and the Judea-Samaria District Police say they arrested him because they found an IDF-issued weapon in his possession, and suspected he may have stolen it. But local security teams throughout Judea and Samaria - who work closely with the IDF - are all legally armed with such weapons.

The trainee explained that he stems from a family of IDF combat soldiers and that the weapon was not stolen; he had legal possession of it with a license for the sake of his training course.

He asked security forces to check with the military security coordinator to verify his story, but they arrested him anyway.

Legal rights organization Honenu intervened and sent copies of the gun license and other forms to the ISA and police soon after his arrest.

Honenu pointed out that although the investigators admitted their error, they refused to return the resident to his home and left him stranded at the entrance to E1 - a controversial area of Judea-Samaria - without access to public transportation.

In response, the organization described the incident as a "scandal," and said and they intend to file a false arrest lawsuit against the police, "since there was a wave of incitement against an entire population, we have witnessed rampant arrests [...] by the police and the Shin Bet."

Honenu added that "arrest on suspicion of fighting for an emergency squad, and without testing minimally the evidence before that arrest, is so far-fetched that it constitutes a scandal, and we hope that those responsible will be punished to the full extent of the law."

"We call on the representatives of the public to act to stop this deterioration, which includes the use of administrative detention, widespread arrest of young men without any reasonable suspicion, and now unnecessary harm to the emergency squad members."